New rules are coming for wood burning stoves. These new rules have come out in the light that it remains to be a popular source of heating homes in a lot of states in the US. As of Feb. 3, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced it has updated its clean air standards for residential wood heaters. These updates were made to make new heaters “significantly cleaner,” and this also aimed to improve air quality in a lot of communities. The new rule will phase in new emission limits over five years, starting in 2015.

The EPA’s rules will limit the amount of harmful particle pollution or particulate matter, for new wood stoves. In the next five years, new stoves that burn wood pellets and split logs will be reduced to 2.5 grams of particulate matter per hour. Amounts such as 2.5 grams per hour may not sound like much however this figure is very significant when combined.

Particle pollution is known to cause different health effects, including heart attacks, strokes and asthma attacks. Older adults, children and people with heart or lung disease are the most at risk from particle pollution exposure. With the new rules, emissions from new models will be reduced by two-thirds, improving air quality between $3.4 billion and $7.6 billion in public health benefits.

On the other hand the fireplace industry does not have those resources. An outdoor wood burning stove user predicted at least one effect of the new rules: “All the cheap stuff is going to go away.” Wood stove makers will have to pay a price to test their products and comply with EPA regulations. The EPA also is missing an opportunity to go after some wood burning emissions.

As for the newly regulated stoves, contemporary hybrid wood-burning units use catalytic convertors to reduce emissions, and vents to regulate air flow. The stoves also have steel tubes to recirculate and re-burn gas, which produces more heat and thus improves efficiency. That in turn lowers the amount of wood that people burn to produce heat, so they can save money, and reduce emissions, by using less wood, he said. Some rural customers who have free supplies of wood on their land don’t bother with that point because their fuel is so cheap.

There are a few apprehensions with the use of a new wood burning stove. The stove technology has changed but some people’s mindset has not. In a popular Ohio showroom, all of the units have met the new EPA requirements. Would you believe that a Regency stove already is rated to produce 1.8 grams per hour of particles when it burns wood?

The owner of the Ohio business said that “All these comply because everything we sell here meets EPA standards,” “So, you can buy something that’s compliant five years down the line, today.”

For more information on EPA new protocols on outdoor wood burning stove units you may visit the EPA official website.